I was impressed by Jane's protocol that Ross posted and thought I would post what I take for anyone who may be interested.

I did have 15 months worth of Temodal which may have had a stabilising effect and tidied up the edges. It at least provides some evidence that my tumor continues to be a low grade mixed glioma, albeit with a higher risk of changing than average.

As you can see I generally have 6-7 protein shakes a day and I believe increasing protein, but not overall calories, is important. One subtle thing that is easy to miss is fruit only in the mornings with veges important in the afternoon and evening.

The cracker is multigrain. Trying to work more grains and beans in there. Any fillers are veges if hungry. With extra protein and good fats its more filling I find, as well as them having better nutritional value than many empty carb calories. Total calories are important as extra is put on as fat.

Training

I exercise everyday. When I was in young this was a problem and led to many injuries. Now I cross train, work on rehab and mix it up.

Gym

Three nonconsecutive days of weights. Focus on strength power and heavy. Half body split limited to machines mainly by my hemiparysis. Two hour including 20min warm up, weight and stretch to follow.

Plus one day of gym cardio. Cross trainer, bikes and other for 1 1/4 hrs including stretching.

Walking

Three time a week. Walk is currently 45 mins. Will need to create longer route if I keep getting faster :). Balance is improving, but most important has been the cardio strength improvement. At present I put this down to dilantin taper, but will have to work out what effects the antioxidants I am taking are having.

Good Health

My diet, supplements and training are designed to promote good health. My approach to cancer is that I need to work hard to attain this. Cancer is my body's way of telling me that it thinks that I am older than my years. So health, fitness and diet are part of my arsonal.

There are no guarantees and I do not believe that any supplement can cure cancer. Complimentary supplements are preferred by me that support a healthy body and brain. I change only one at a time and if over time I become unconvinced of the benefit that supplement goes.

Well there it is for the moment. Hope it helps to share what I am doing why and encourage more to do likewise.

The evening cheese and cracker for some reason was revving me up and making it more difficult to get to sleep. So now I have that as my pre-training snack, with shake of course :).

I have managed to work beans into the diet. They are now midday snack with shake two hours before lunch. Before I was averaging closer to 6 shakes a day, now 8; which is more in line with my bodybuilding goals for the year.

Vitamin D3 is going well. I am currently looking whether to add anything new. One thing I am trialing now is Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA).

ALA supports other antioxidants as well as being an antioxidant itself. Unlike other antioxidants lipoic acid is both fat and water-soluble and is easily transported across cell membranes. Also supports cardiovascular health and glucose (sugar) metabolism. Body produces naturally so this to boost those levels.

I have an appointment with my oncologist as extensive surgery appears too risky at the moment. I have stable disease at present, but I want to try taking advantage of that.

Due to my next chemo most likely to be a variant of PCV, I have already decided to cut out cheese; one of the things you can't have on PCV. I haven't mentioned that I used to eat three bananas a day before getting sick. I did't have a good reason to change, but I no longer eat bananas. Instead I eat apricotts, which have 3 times as much potassium as bananas. So I have apricotts with my morning cereal now and have the yoghurt later.

I have cut back my supplements again. My theory has always been to keep things simple - why take 3 antioxidants when one will do? The fruit extracts and the ALA went out. I began taking fish oil capsules a month ago.

I find eggs to be important, so I am going to try to increase these. I tried cottage cheese, but my weak leg started to cramp and I felt I was in clot territory again - so I stopped.

My training phase is now preparing for my next contest, so I am cutting carbs and lowering my body fat. Higher reps, not to failure, and more cardio.

My training phase is now preparing for my next contest, so I am cutting carbs and lowering my body fat. Higher reps, not to failure, and more cardio.

Stay healthy everyone!

Ken,

That's truly amazing! Best of luck for your training. I'm still teaching Bodypump/Bodystep and RPM and everyone always asks me how I manage to do it, and I'm not the one with the brain tumour, hubby is. You truly are an inspiration. Hopefully, hubby will be able to get back to the gym with me soon.

Good on you for keeping things going at the gym :). I know that Raymond has been a gym junkie and hope to hear he is back into the swing of things after the PCV.

Last year you may remember I competed at 69kg and focused on contest preparation. I have already started my prep and I am currently 80.5kg, which I am very happy with. In 2006 before my diagnosis I competed at 76.5kg, so on target to better that this year :).

There is no scientific diagnostic, prognostic or treatment problem with bananas that I know of. The problem that I have with them is psychological. Allow me to explain.

Before my diagnosis I ate three bananas a day. I probably easily could have managed double that - I too love bananas. I remembered a woman's story that I had heard when in hospital. She brought a new carpet. Soon after her husband died. Then her pet died and her own health deteriorated. There was only one solution - the carpet had to go!

Now this makes no logical sense. However, I felt after my diagnosis something had to change that I had to adapt. Bananas were my favourite food, they had to go.

Now aside from being a post hoc rationalisation, if my cancer is caused by bad genes and bad programming will lead to my demise, then this out of my control. However, if cutting out bananas, or changing my carpet, could alter my outlook, then this is something that I can control. I realised also that I was eating too much fruit and not enough veges. So there was some justification for cutting back on fruit, while increasing my veges.

So the main reason is in fact pyschological. I do believe that something had to change that I could control. That I couldn't live exactly the same as before. So I selected small changes; I didn't throw the baby out with the bath water. I selected something that I loved as changing something that I was indifferent to would have provided no benefit.

So whether you decide to eat bananas or change something else is over to you. I felt to gain a sense of control over my disease I needed to cut out bananas, even if it was a placebo. Hope this makes sense - it does to me :).

My definition of a miracle is having the evidence or proof to explain something and still being amazed. I was wrong about something and the change has been amazing.

From the above posts you will have noticed that I was taking alot of protein powder. I assumed that I was enjoying the benefits, stronger immune system and better health. After six years taking it I assumed that the fatigue I was experiencing was still due to the chemo.

I learned from my holiday reading, "Being Wrong" by Kathryn Schulz, that my 'sunk cost' in protein powder was high. I had invested alot of time and money and believed I was doing the right thing.

As the new year dawned I was getting worried. My fatigue was getting worse and I was losing strength at the gym. I started to question my diet again. The last suspect was protein, but my reading made me question my beliefs.

So last week I cut down my protein intake and I started to feel energised. This week I have cut it out entirely and I am stronger yet also do more cardio. It feels like a miracle.

Now I'm not suggesting protein is bad for you, but my assumption that protein was good for me was wrong. As is my way, this is the only thing I have changed so I can isolate the effect. Its raised a question for me - if there is a cancer personality, could there be a diet that is better for cancer survivors?

Why have most survivors I have read about turn to a vegetable based low protein diet. At present I still eat fish and eggs. One piece of advice I read said to monitor how you felt after eating - when I had protein powder I felt tired.

Even though it has a dubious history if you Google it, I ordered a book on metatyping diet. I would fall into the high carb category. Don't know enough yet but there appears to be something in a high carb, veges and fruit, for cancer survivors. Vegetarianism goes against my upbringing, but so does good health.

This one change has made me so happy. Going to the gym and the ability to go flat out is something I love. I am hoping the increase in my quality of life will enable me to be further on the right side of the median.

Of course, I have been wrong before and though very fit still got cancer. I'm happy to take some responsibility and continue to change. For those who have chosen vegetarianism after their diagnosis you may say I told you so. But being wrong gives the opportunity for fruitful change - you only have to admit when you are wrong. If you read the book, you'll find out this isn't as easy as it sounds.

Reading between the lines of last post, the inference is that the main problem I had was with animal proteins. It made sense to take the next step and go vegetarian by no longer eating fish. I still take fish oil tablets as one of my main sources of omega 3.

So far so good. I am still waking up early, before 0600 and exercising before breakfast. I've settled on power walking. Rarely having exercised at this time, I'm amazed at how friendly everyone else is.

I have made one more change, last week - I went gluten free. This was easy as I was hardly eating any gluten as I had cut out most processed food. Yet it was enough to make a difference and I feel better again.

As well as the metabolic typing book, I have just started a grain free diet book. This is closely related to gluten free. I was having a gluten free museli, but I am allergic to honey so I settled on oats. Its amazing the debate on whether oats are gluten free or not - this book categorizes oats as a grain and doesn't recommend.

I am going to finish both books and make up my own mind. Since I have had more energy I have realised the importance of self-awareness and keeping a journal. Both of these things have led me towards removing animal protein (I still eat eggs) and grains, and towards a high carb diet before reading these books. I am please because I have a way of personally validating the theories before having read the book.

As I indicated previously, some of what is working for me will work for you - don't automatically assume it all will! Self-awareness and a diary will be your greatest assets on this journey to embrace an authentic you and maximise your preventive powers.

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